Dr. Doug Kondo received his MD from the University of Utah and completed his adult psychiatry training at the Menninger Clinic and his child & adolescent psychiatry fellowship at Duke University. He then served as a research fellow at the Duke Clinical Research Institute prior to joining the faculty of the University of Utah, where he is Brain Institute USTAR investigator and Assistant Professor of psychiatry in the School of Medicine.
At the VISN 19 MIRECC, Dr. Kondo is a member of the suicide consultation service and serves as principal investigator on a neuroimaging treatment study for Veterans with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder. Funded research projects include neuroimaging studies of adolescent bipolar depression and treatment-resistant major depressive disorder, and a genetic study of adolescent completed suicide. Another area of interest includes studying the effect of elevation on morbidity and mortality in major mental illness.
Research Team: Douglas Kondo MD, Kristen Fiedler BS, Elliott Bueler
Based on the results of prior clinical trials, the research team is conducting a study to learn if the nutritional supplement CREATINE is an effective adjunctive (i.e. add-on) treatment for SSRI-resistant Major Depression.
DelMastro, K., Hellem, T., Kim, N., Kondo, D., Sung, Y. H., & Renshaw, P. F. (2011). Incidence of major depressive episode correlates with elevation of substate region of residence. Journal of Affective Disorders, 129(1-3), 376-379.
BACKGROUND: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a common disorder that is often associated with suicide. We have recently suggested that elevation may play a role in regional variations in rates of suicide. We hypothesize that there is also a significant correlation between incidence of MDD and elevation of residence. METHODS: The substate estimates from the 2004 to 2006 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) report from SAMHSA was used to extract substate level data related to percentages of people 18 years or older who experienced serious psychological distress or a major depressive episode in the past year. Mean elevation of each substate region was calculated by averaging the weighted elevations of its relevant counties. Average elevation for United States counties was calculated using the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) elevation dataset. Pearson correlation coefficients were computed to investigate the association between average substate elevation and rate of serious psychological distress or major depressive episode. RESULTS: There was a significant correlation between percentage of people experiencing serious psychological distress in the past year in a substate region and that substate region's mean elevation (r=0.18; p=0.0005), as well as between the percentage of people having at least one major depressive episode in the past year in a substate region and that substate region's mean elevation (r=0.27; p0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Elevation appears to be a significant risk factor for MDD. Further studies are indicated to determine whether the increased incidence of depression with increased elevation may be due to the hypoxic effects on subjects with MDD.
Kondo, D. G., Hellem, T. L., Sung, Y. H., Kim, N., Jeong, E. K., Delmastro, K. K., Shi, X., & Renshaw, P.F. (2011). Review: Magnetic resonance spectroscopy studies of pediatric major depressive disorder. Depression Research & Treatment, Epub 2010 Oct 4.
Introduction. This paper focuses on the application of Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) to the study of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) in children and adolescents. Method. A literature search using the National Institutes of Health's PubMed database was conducted to identify indexed peer-reviewed MRS studies in pediatric patients with MDD. Results. The literature search yielded 18 articles reporting original MRS data in pediatric MDD. Neurochemical alterations in Choline, Glutamate, and N-Acetyl Aspartate are associated with pediatric MDD, suggesting pathophysiologic continuity with adult MDD. Conclusions. The MRS literature in pediatric MDD is modest but growing. In studies that are methodologically comparable, the results have been consistent. Because it offers a noninvasive and repeatable measurement of relevant in vivo brain chemistry, MRS has the potential to provide insights into the pathophysiology of MDD as well as the mediators and moderators of treatment response.
Kondo, D. G., Sung, Y. H., Hellem, T. L., Delmastro, K. K., Jeong, E. K., Kim, N., Shi, X. & Renshaw, P.F. (2011). Open-label uridine for treatment of depressed adolescents with bipolar disorder. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology, 21(2), 171-175.
This report is an open-label case series of seven depressed adolescents with bipolar disorder treated with uridine for 6 weeks. Treatment response was measured with the Children's Depression Rating Scale-Revised and the Clinical Global Impressions scale. Uridine was associated with decreased depressive symptoms, and was well tolerated by study participants. Further systematic studies of uridine are warranted.
Marchant BK, Reimherr FW, Halls C, Williams ED, Strong RE, Kondo D, Soni P, Robison RJ. Long-term open-label response to atomoxetine in adult ADHD: influence of sex, emotional dysregulation, and double-blind response to atomoxetine. Atten Defic Hyperact Disord. 2011 Sep;3(3):237-44. doi: 10.1007/s12402-011-0054-2. Epub 2011 Mar 27.
A three-year open-label study of atomoxetine in adults with ADHD followed two multicenter, double-blind trials. In the double-blind trials, female gender and higher levels of emotional symptoms were associated with better outcome. Following a 4-week placebo washout period, 384 (of 536) subjects continued into the open-label study. 61% of subjects entering this open-label study remained after 6 months at an average dose of 100 mg/day. Subjects who had previously responded to double-blind atomoxetine achieved maximum response after 8 weeks of open-label medication, but others continued to improve for 36 weeks. Women improved more (7.7 ± 6.4) than men (6.1 ± 6.4) on the Wender-Reimherr Adult Attention Deficit Disorder Scale (WRAADDS) (P = .007) and the Conners' Adult ADHD Rating Scale (P = .03). Subjects with emotional dysregulation improved more than others on the WRAADDS (P = .001). Responders ultimately improved approximately 60% in attentional, hyperactive/impulsive, and emotional symptoms. Thirty-nine percent of atomoxetine double-blind non-responders became responders during open-label treatment.
Douglas Kondo, MD 
